LiftBlog’s Peter Landsman presents his favorite — and five not-so — lifts in New England

Sunday River's Jordan 8 now has a high-tech bubble that makes it wind-resistant.

There’s been a construction boom lately in the ski lift industry, which means Peter Landsman has been booking a lot of flights.

Landsman, the undisputed authority on all things chairlifts, runs the LiftBlog.com website, a labor of love he attends to when not working his full-time job as — you guessed it — a lift supervisor at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming. He set up his LiftBlog site in 2015 for about $200 and still does all the work himself.

Remarkably, Landsman has visited and ridden every lift in the country — some 2,381 at about 480 resorts — over the course of 22 years.

In addition to documenting every lift at every resort in the United States and Canada, he tracks and shares lift industry news. Last December, his site attracted 200,000 unique visitors and 610,000 page views.

“It was easier during COVID when there were only like 25 lifts a year being built in the United States and Canada,” said Landsman, a Seattle native who first fell in love with skiing and ski lifts as a youth at Snoqualmie. “This year, it’s 62 (new lifts). So, I really am kind of running around this winter to try and get to as many as I can.”

In November, Landsman visited new lifts at Whiteface Mountain, N.Y. (the Notch fixed-grip quad); Middlebury Snowbowl, Vt. (Skytrac fixed-grip quad); Sugarloaf (Bucksaw Express fixed-grip quad); and Sunday River, Maine (Barker 6 six-pack and Merrill Hill II fixed-grip triple). Along the way, he couldn’t resist making a stop at Mad River Glen to catch an unscheduled ride on the classic Single Chair.

We recently caught up with Landsman to discuss his favorite and least favorite lifts in New England. Here is what he had to say about that:

TOP 10

Jordan 8 at Sunday River: The Jordan Bowl pod is one of my favorites and now it has this beautiful, very high-tech bubble chair (Doppelmayr high-speed eight-person lift installed in 2022). One of the good things about that lift is that it’s now very wind-resistant, which is really nice for New England skiers.

Slide Brook Express at Sugarbush: A personal favorite of mine (Doppelmayr high-speed quad installed in 1995). It’s not necessarily the best ski lift in the world but it’s the longest high-speed quad in the entire world and it’s just a very cool ride. It goes between Mount Ellen and Lincoln Peak — up and down, and up and down — over a number of creek beds.

Skyway Gondola at Bretton Woods: Another one that I really like (Doppelmayr installed in 2019) as there are beautiful views off of that lift and it’s in an area that can be pretty cold. It’s nice to get in a gondola sometimes and warm up a bit on the way up instead of being on the chairlift.

The Single Chair at Mad River Glen: Obviously, it’s a legend (American Steel & Wire fixed-grip installed in 1948; restored in 2007). It’s still the only single chair I’ve ever ridden anywhere. It’s just got very good, sustained vertical the whole way up, and it can move quite quickly.

Lincoln Express Quad at Loon Mountain: The high-speed lift servicing South Peak (Doppelmayr, installed in 2007) is another that has really nice, consistent vertical. It’s not too crowded over there usually and there are really nice trails off of that lift.

Polar Express at Wachusett: Wachusett is just an extremely well-run mountain that is a labor of love for the Crowleys. They really put a lot of time and effort into that mountain. The Polar Express (Doppelmayr, installed in 1994) has a great name for a lift, named after the Polar Beverages company that they also run. They are constantly upgrading their lifts behind the scenes. They just run better and serve skiers better, even if they don’t know it.

Red Chair at Magic Mountain: Magic Mountain’s red chair (Heron-Poma double installed in 1971) is a classic. Heron was a Colorado-based manufacturer and Poma is French. At one point they merged but that lift is bomb proof. I don’t think anything’s ever going to happen to that lift. It will run forever. It was well-built when it went in, and it’s well-taken care of. I hope it stays that way for a very long time.

T-Bar Express Quad at Berkshire East: Berkshire East is putting in its first detachable quad and I’m really looking forward to it. I haven’t ridden it yet because it’s not quite finished (Ed. note: the Leitner Poma lift officially opened on Christmas Eve). It’s going to be a huge improvement. Not many mountains in Massachusetts have detachable lifts. It’s the first one for the Schaefer family at any of their mountains and I think it’ll be a really nice improvement to be able to take a bunch of laps in much less time.

Mansfield Gondola at Stowe: A classic servicing the highest mountain in Vermont. The red color is quintessential Stowe, and the gondola (Poma 8, installed in 1991) services 2,100 vertical feet of fantastic, intermediate cruising runs. Northern Vermont can be cold, and the gondola is a nice break from being outside.

T-bar at Titcomb Mountain: If I had to pick one T-bar, there’s a very cool one at Titcomb Mountain, Maine, kind of near where I went to school (Colby College). Hall Ski-Lift Company was a manufacturer out of upstate New York and they built a lot of lifts in New England, a lot of T-bars in particular. And the one at Titcomb is just a great ride. It runs quickly and efficiently. It’s certainly nothing new but it serves the whole mountain quite well.

BOTTOM 5

Summit Triple at Attitash: The first one (CTEC Triple operated between 1972-2022) I think we can all agree on. It’s actually gone now but I would like to still include it as maybe one of the worst lifts ever, anywhere. I’m very happy it’s gone. It was just such a slow ride. It would break down a lot. And I’m not sad to see that one go at all.

Aerial Tram at Cannon: This might be a bit controversial, but I ride the tram here in Jackson (Wyoming) quite often and I think there’s a place for an aerial tramway where they’re really needed, like at Big Sky, where it’s a very steep mountain and you can’t have any towers. But in Cannon’s case (Agudio Tram 70, installed in 1979), I find it’s just more efficient to ride the chairlifts that go basically to the same place. And some days it isn’t even running at all because I think it costs quite a bit to operate.

Timberline at Sugarloaf: It was before my time but Sugarloaf used to have a gondola to the top (PHB Gondola 4) and that was probably a pretty nice ride. Now they have Timberline (Borvig quad, installed in 1997). It’s just a cold, slow ride and I think the way that Boyne has been investing in their mountains, I think that they could probably — hopefully — someday soon invest in a nicer summit lift.

Green Mountain Flyer at Jay Peak: This (Leitner high-speed quad, installed in 1999) is another very cold ride. It’s kind of on a ridge line as you go up. I think it would be great if it was either a bubble lift or a gondola instead of an open-air chair. It’s also kind of a unique machine, an Italian lift that is one of only a few in North America, and has had its fair share of maintenance challenges.

Superstar Express at Killington: Superstar (Yan high-speed quad, installed in 1987) is a great part of the mountain but the Superstar lift is almost 30 years old at this point and it was built by a manufacturer that’s now defunct. I think this one has served its function well but is very overdue for an upgrade, particularly now that Killington hosts the World Cup.

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More: We break down the best lifts and more with a behind-the-scenes look at our “Best of New England” survey on the New England Ski Journal Basecamp podcast, presented by Country Ski & Sport.